Day 9 - Yosemite to Death Valley

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Day 9 - Jackie - 8 Sep
It was a driving day today, as we departed Yosemite and headed out to Death Valley via Tioga Pass. An interesting drive out of the park which took in areas we hadn't been to previously. We passed Lake Tenaya, Toulumne Meadows and Lembert Dome, but as we had a long drive ahead, only stopped briefly for a few photos.Temperature again slowly rose as we travelled down the road, at one point rising 10 degree fahrenheit in about 4 minutes. We drove through a town called Beatty... we thought of Lara and Scott as we did so! Then on to a ghost town called Rhyolite, which was a first for all of us but the heat was starting make stops out of the car more challenging. It was about 43 degrees at this stop which made us all wonder why they ever bothered to develop in this particular location anyway. But it was amazing to see how early last century this town started with buildings that had electricity and marble floors in some buildings and was prosperous due to mining. Interestingly, the town became a ghost town a few years after the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco as financiers of the mining were from SF and spare funds were then required to rebuild SF, not invest in prospecting and eventually everyone just up and left!!!We then travelled on to the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes which were the backdrop for the Star Wars film where Luke Skywalker was flying his plane thingy. Amazing to see but again the heat was unreal -, 46 degrees by this time, and as much as we would have liked to stay longer, we had to kick on due to the need to get to our accommodation.Accommodation is limited in Death Valley and I had read that many do not have aircon (not a viable option) so we stayed just out of the park at the Long Street Inn Casino which was practically the only building for miles but it was great complete with a giant cow (haven't quite worked out the significance of that!). Kids jumped straight in the pool, Brett had a few beers and would you believe they had a Country Karaoke Night in the bar/restaurant. How Brett lasted the evening is beyond me, but he thankfully controlled himself, and didn;t ruin the night out for the grey brigade of Death Valley. All in all a great night with a lot of laughs.

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Photos

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View of Half Dome on our way out of Yosemite

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View from Rhyolite township

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Rhyolite Ghost Town

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Our rental car in Death Valley

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Emma at Sea Level - Death Valley

Comments

[Malones]

Hi
Hi All! We too had your emails sent to spam - so a little late off the blocks, but THANKS for the updates & WOW what a fab time you seem to be having!! Belated birthday greetings Emma - glad you had a great day!! Loving the pics & descriptions. Has been a lot to take in in one sitting!! You must have spent a long time planning this trip - where did you get the time to do that? Looking forward to your next news update. Love from us all xxx

[Tim]

G'day
Good to see Slim's kept the car in one piece still - from that angle, anyway. I would have paid good money to see Brett belt out "Rhinestone Cowboy" for the golden oldies - maybe another time...